Fallout 76 Players Banned for Trying to Improve Graphics

Highlights

For Fallout 76's anti-cheat tech, graphics mods and cheats are the same

Players can appeal bans by writing an essay on why cheating is wrong

Fallout 76 has suffered from a host of issues at launch

Bethesda has banned Fallout 76 players from using mods to improve the game's graphics. Multiple users have received emails from the company stating they have violated Fallout 76's code of conduct and terms of service by "cheating". This is because, according to the emails sent by Bethesda, it detects any Fallout 76 visual mod to be a "third-party application, which provides an unfair in-game advantage, while logged onto Fallout 76." It appears that Fallout 76's monitoring tech can't tell the difference between mods that exist to enhance what is an exceptionally buggy game or those that straight up allow for cheating.

That said, Bethesda has allowed users of Fallout 76 graphics mods back into the game only if they write an essay explaining why third-party apps for cheating is bad.

"If you would like to appeal this account closure, we would be willing to accept an essay on ‘Why the use of third party cheat software is detrimental to an online game community' for our management team to review," an email from Bethesda reads (via ResetEra).

With Fallout 76 potentially being this year's No Man's Sky (no mean feat since 2018 also saw Sea of Thieves), there's no doubt that developer Bethesda misled fans and abused the goodwill the Fallout franchise has garnered over the years for quick profit. While this was obvious while playing Fallout 76, the extent of its laziness in making it has now come to light. Fallout 76 features code directly copy-pasted from its past games, most notably The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. Considering the final boss fight in Fallout 76, the Scorchbeast Queen looked like a reskin of Skyrim's dragons, it's now obvious how this came to be.

As for Fallout 4? Although Fallout 76 might feel like a mod for Fallout 4, the files Leites unearthed showed off that it has the identical content check functionality. To the point where Bethesda did not even change the comment section of the code or remove references to Fallout 4.

It's sad that Fallout 76 launched in the state it did and Bethesda's behaviour post-launch does little to fix the mess it found itself in. From a buggy Fallout 76 beta to a disappointing game at launch that needs massive fixes and even its Power Armour Edition that shipped with nylon bags instead of canvas as well as Fallout 76 customer details being leaked, everything that could go wrong with Fallout 76 has gone wrong, making us wonder how it could possibly get any worse.

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